A family's journey from war-torn Cambodia to success in the Upstate

Saturday

Feb 2, 2013 at 10:12 PM

Rolled into Sunny Poeng's donut recipe is a story of courage, perseverance, survival and family.

By TREVOR ANDERSONtrevor.anderson@shj.com

Rolled into Sunny Poeng's donut recipe is a story of courage, perseverance, survival and family.After fleeing war-torn Cambodia with his wife, Lang, in 1981, the father of three became the proprietor of a popular donut shop in Ukiah, Calif. Eight years ago, he relocated to Kings Mountain, N.C., and opened Sunny's Quick Stop at 720 Granard St. in Gaffney.Poeng had retired from the donut business, but this year he sold two winning lottery tickets; a $250,000 jackpot in July and a $200,000 prize in October. His business earned $4,500 from the state Education Lottery Commission and his middle son, Andrew, 26, convinced him to revive the Sunny's Donuts concept so he could follow in his father's footsteps.Andrew and Sunny wake up at 2 a.m. every day to make the donuts. Sunny passes along his recipes and knowledge from 17 years in the business and then stays until 8 p.m. to close up the convenience store.Their creations include some traditional items and a few imaginative ideas based on four types of flour: regular yeast, old-fashioned cake, royal cake and buttermilk cake. Some unique offerings include "tiger claws" filled with cinnamon-apple, chocolate chip bars, buttermilk bars and apple fritters.Around town, the family's business has earned the nickname "the lucky store." The Poengs insist, however, that luck has nothing to do with it.For them, the store is their American Dream born out of years of hardship in the jungles of a distant land. It signifies the strength of a family bonded together, sharing the most important ingredient—love.Sunny was born in western Cambodia in 1957 and Lang in 1959. They didn't meet each other until 1979. Both of their fathers died when they were children so Sunny and Lang, and their siblings, were cared for by their mothers.In 1975, Cambodian communists of the Khmer Rouge organization seized control of the country under the infamous revolutionary Pol Pot.The Khmer Rouge, which was formed in 1968 as an offshoot of the Vietnam People's Army of North Vietnam, began imposing radical social reforms aimed at turning the country into an agrarian communist utopia.Cambodians who were living in cities or towns were forced to move to rural areas to work on farms or do hard labor.As the country began to turn back to the Middle Ages, Sunny and Lang were caught in the middle. Just teenagers, they were separated from their families and forced into to all-male and all-female work camps.In the camps, they were on the receiving end of the Khmer Rouge's brutal brand of social engineering. They were beaten, tortured, starved and made to work 16-hour days.They had no shoes, one pair of clothes, lived in foul conditions and were almost always exposed to the elements. Religion and relationships were forbidden."We were allowed to have one spoon of rice twice a day," Sunny said. "We weren't allowed to look (the Khmer Rouge) in the eye. We always had to bow. They could work us to death, beat us until we died, or kill us for no reason. We were worse than slaves. We were treated like animals."Disease and suffering was all around them, the Poengs said. Dissent was met with swift and terrible action. They witnessed executions and saw their friends die from hunger and exhaustion.Everything belonged to "onka," the government, Lang said. Cambodians weren't allowed to keep anything for themselves, even the vegetables grown in their own gardens. Lang remembered seeing one of her peers tortured for trying to hide a coconut.Sunny said he observed one of the Khmer Rouge's favorite torments on several occasions. He said they would put a man on a stationary bicycle that was wired to a radio or tape player. The soldiers would force their victim, who was likely exhausted and starving, to peddle while they listened to the music. If the music slowed, they beat the man until he picked up the pace.Other Khmer Rouge vile delights included suffocation via a plastic bag over a person's head and forcing people to drink a cocktail of soapy water."It seemed like there was no light. We were constantly in darkness," Lang said. "The only freedom we had was to die, whether by suicide, giving up or talking back so they would kill you."In 1977, Sunny narrowly escaped death, but one of his brothers was not so lucky."My group leader came to me and said ‘I just killed your brother and I'm going to kill you next,'" he said. "He said it just like my brother was a dog. He said ‘I'm busy right now, but when I'm not, I'm going to kill you.'"Sunny said he went back to work and his leader never followed through with the threat.Lang found some reprieve that year, but not before she endured one of the darkest times of her ordeal. To end her suffering, Lang had been contemplating suicide by jumping in a river because she couldn't swim and death would have almost been quick and certain.She told a friend about her plan, but that friend reminded her that, if she died, her younger sister and brother would grow up never knowing her."She was right," Lang said. "I can look back on it now and say that God protected me by having her there to keep me from jumping in the river."A short time later, Lang became ill and was moved off of the "front line" to a hospital, where malaria and other diseases were rampant. People were dying all around her and Lang said she made the decision to head back to the front line despite not being well.When she returned, she was put to work, but it was evident that she could not do the hardest tasks. She was moved further back to serve in a support role, although the work was still grueling and the conditions were still awful."We were programmed to think it was our duty to work ourselves to death," Lang said. "After I got sick, I didn't care. I knew that if I stayed on the front line I'd die and I didn't want to go back."In 1979, Sunny, who had just turned 21, was working in a field, when suddenly the sky above him was split by two Vietnamese war planes sweeping in low on a bombing run. The bombs fell just a short distance from where he was standing.That night, he heard gunfire in the distance. He found out later that it was the sound of the pro-Chinese Khmer Rouge's regime crumbling under the pro-Soviet Union Vietnamese intervention.Sunny said his group leader called "a meeting." He and the other workers were huddled together in a field."I was certain they were going to kill us," he said.The group leader told the men that Khmer Rouge forces had just executed the populace of a neighboring village and was pulling out toward the mountains. The workers were expected to follow in the coming days or they too would be executed.As soon as his overseers left, Sunny saw his opportunity and took flight in the other direction. He moved slowly and quietly through the jungle for fear of being caught and followed the road to the neighboring village, where he witnessed the Khmer Rouge's savagery."There were bodies everywhere," Sunny said. "I stayed there for a few days, scavenging for food and sleeping among the dead so I wouldn't be discovered."After a few days passed, Sunny continued his perilous journey. He came across more villages whose inhabitants had been exterminated. The stench of death from bloated corpses was around every corner.He was finally able to locate his mother."I told her we have to run, but we were so weak we could barely walk straight," he said.Along the road, Sunny gathered up a few of his brothers and sisters. The family continued on toward the country's border with Thailand, hoping to find help. Instead, they were met by a group of bandits and turned over to the Thai army. They were then loaded onto a bus with other refugees and taken to a mountain that was near a great minefield separating the two countries.At gunpoint, Sunny said Thai forces made the refugees walk over the mountain and down a cliff. Some people fell to their deaths. They were then forced to go out into the landmines because, he assumed, "they didn't want to clear it themselves."Sunny said he saw two brothers step on a mine and were both killed instantly. There were other casualties and Sunny's family decided to stop where they were and squatted together. They remained there for several days without food or water."The situation was very bad," Sunny said. "I knew I had to do something."He made the decision that he would venture out into the mines with a five-gallon bucket they had found."I told my family that if I didn't come back they'd know I had died because there was no way I'd leave them behind," he said. "I looked at my brother and told him that if I didn't come back it was his responsibility to keep everyone alive. I hugged my mom. Everyone was crying."Sunny struck out to find a water source. A man who had the same idea was walking just a few yards away from him and stepped on a mine and was killed.He came upon a foul spring surrounded by animal waste. The mutilated body of a man lay nearby.As he knelt down to fill his bucket, he noticed a string tied to several trees surrounding the spring. Attached to the string was a hand grenade—a booby trap commonly used by the Khmer Rouge to maim or kill.Sunny avoided setting off the grenade and filled his bucket before heading back to his family.A few days later, the family decided to leave the area. One of his sisters stayed behind with her husband's family.Sunny and his relatives walked for three months until they finally reached his mother's hometown. They stayed for a while to regain their strength before striking out for the Vietnamese border, where they were turned back.The family returned to the village and Sunny gathered food. He had decided that he would go on alone and walk to a UN camp, where he would try to establish a plan to get his family out of the country."In my heart and in my soul, I knew I could no longer live in Cambodia even though it was my home."His mother gave him a small piece of gold. When he got to the camp, he traded the gold and set up a small merchant operation and his family came later.While he was in the camp, he met Lang's sister. Determined to give her sibling a better life the sister arranged for Sunny and Lang to be married. It was a decision that the 19-year-old Lang was less than happy about."I didn't know him. There was no love there," Lang said. "I didn't want to have children. I wanted to enjoy my life."Lang had come to the UN camp through her own set of circumstances.By the time the Khmer Rouge was ousted, her mother had died in a work camp and she was separated from the rest of her family.She decided to become a nurse and was working in a hospital. A family friend happened to run into Lang's brother and told him that she was at the hospital."(My brother) came to the hospital," Lang said. "He said, ‘I thought you were dying.' I said I'm not dying; I work here."One by one, Lang found her siblings and moved to the camp, also hoping to find a way out of Cambodia.During her time in the camp, Lang found her faith. She became a Christian and found her hope restored.After she and Sunny were married, the couple was living in a crowded hut with several other families when Lang received word that her sister had made it to Bridgeport, Conn., and was working to find sponsorship to bring Lang and Sunny to the United States."What was the U.S.? We didn't know. We had no education," Sunny said. "All we knew is the Khmer Rouge hated America. All they had to do was say you're American CIA and shoot you in the head."Lang said she had trepidations."I heard there was no rice in the U.S.," she said. "I thought we're going to starve. Everyone packed rice, not belongings. I found out later that the U.S. had everything."In 1981, the Poengs finally heard their number called, signifying their selection to come to the U.S. They made the flight in two days, with a brief stop in Rome.The couple landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport. They spoke not a word of English. A car drove them to Connecticut.Sunny and Lang soon landed factory jobs. Sunny earned $4.25 an hour and Lang $3.45.A year later, the Poengs welcomed their first child, a son, Daniel. Andrew was born in 1986.In 1987, a friend asked Sunny to move across the country to help him start a donut shop in Ukiah, Calif. They agreed and Sunny took over the shop after a year. Lang became a U.S. citizen in 1989 and Sunny in 1991. In 1995, the couple had a daughter, Brittany. Meanwhile, the donut shop prospered.In 2004, a tragedy sprung forth a miracle and caused the family to once again move cross-country.A driver who was parked outside the shop mistakenly hit the accelerator pedal and drove a car through the entrance.Andrew, who was a senior in high school, said that normally he and his friends would have been sitting where the vehicle crashed through and likely would have been killed. Luckily, there weren't any injuries, but the shop was demolished."We all decided not to go to the shop that day," Andrew said. "I can't explain it. So many small things happened that day that kept us from being there. God kept us safe."After the incident, the family made its way to Kings Mountain, N.C. Sunny opened his quick stop at the intersection of Logan and Granard Streets. He hadn't planned on making donuts, but Andrew was able to talk him out of retirement.A graduate of Appalachian State University with a bachelor of arts in communications, Andrew was working as a supervisor at a janitorial contractor.After his family received a check from the lottery winnings, Andrew decided it was time to bring the donut shop full circle under the tutelage of his father."I made him prove it to me—that he wanted to do it," Sunny said. "I'm very proud of him."Andrew said that working alongside his father has opened his eyes to the sacrifices made by both of his parents over the years and has given him a deep appreciation for his family's story."At first I thought my story was normal," he said. "It was interesting growing up in an American culture. I resented certain things, like having to translate for my parents. I used to hate the donut shop because it kept them from coming to sporting events and other things… But I can see how God has blessed us every step along the way."Andrew said he values his father's patience with him and so far the results have been positive. He said the donut shop's customer base has continued to grow and believes there's room at the table for another donut maker in town."My dad is an artist," Andrew said. "He truly is. I make something unfortunate and somehow he salvages it. I know we have the goods."At least 1 million Cambodians, a quarter of the country's population, died under the Khmer Rouge.The Poengs know their story could have ended years ago. They fought through adversity, lost family members, walked day and night, slept amongst the dead and lived in constant fear.Lang, who teaches a Cambodian Sunday school class at United Baptist Church in Boiling Springs, has posted scripture verses throughout the store to inspire her customers.Each patron is sent on their way with a wish for them to "have a Sunny day!""At first I wanted to be angry," Lang said. "How could they do this? But after we got saved, we realized that God has a reason and a purpose for everything. What we've been through has made us stronger and brought us to where we are today."For more information, visit: www.facebook.com/sunnysdonuts.